Our dining room makeover is finished! We love the new look! We set out to reflect our style in this space and we really feel like we did. It has a peaceful farmhouse feel mixed with a little modern minimalism. Here it is, friends, our made over dining room! The Reveal If you weren’t following along with us you can check out our progress below: Week 1 – Our Plan Week 2 – Getting Started Week 3 – Sanding & Staining Week 4 – Slow & Steady Week 5 – Marriage Lessons The Details In just six weeks so much has changed in this relatively small space. The new white paint acted as a blank canvas for us to add art, color, plants and other details to. We chose Dunn Edwards DEW 380. It’s their basic un-tinted white and it has very neutral tones. The white also added simplicity to our space since the walls have lots of texture. The character of the brick and interlocking wooden panels shines through the white paint. We lightened up the wood beams for a more natural color instead of the really dark stain that has been there for years. Along with the beams […]

Our dining room makeover is finished! We love the new look! We set out to reflect our style in this space and we really feel like we did. It has a peaceful farmhouse feel mixed with a little modern minimalism. Here it is, friends, our made over dining room!

The Reveal

If you weren’t following along with us you can check out our progress below:

The Details

In just six weeks so much has changed in this relatively small space.

The new white paint acted as a blank canvas for us to add art, color, plants and other details to. We chose Dunn Edwards DEW 380. It’s their basic un-tinted white and it has very neutral tones. The white also added simplicity to our space since the walls have lots of texture. The character of the brick and interlocking wooden panels shines through the white paint.

We lightened up the wood beams for a more natural color instead of the really dark stain that has been there for years. Along with the beams we re-stained our wooden front door. That transformed the whole entry area and it feels so welcoming. The wood beams are really old so they had some stubborn stains on them even after we sanded them down but we embraced the uneven tone and put a new stain on it called Golden Oak by Varathane. We love how the beams turned out! They are so simple, rustic, and natural.

Another big change was the addition of a large painting I did that covers most of the wall opposite our windows. You can see it right when you walk in the door. We love having peaceful pastoral landscapes in this room, but we wanted something personal to our family so this painting is of a mountain within a mile of us that all the locals are familiar with and many hike regularly. This mountain feels like home to us since we see it almost every day so I decided to paint it the way it might have looked over one hundred years ago. We love the peaceful and comfortable vibe it creates for the room.

We found the perfect dining room buffet cabinet from Ballard Designs that sits underneath my painting. It has a great farmhouse look with those cleans lines we love and it’s got great storage. We also replaced our original Nest thermostat with the Nest Thromstat E that has a frosted white face which blends in to the wall.

I also had a vision for an old wooden shelf (most people thought it was a weird bench, but I saw a shelf) with pink chipping paint. When I say chippy, I mean like flakes falling everywhere. We lightly sanded it and we were able to save most of the beautiful pink color. We cut the “legs” off and it looked immediately how I had imagined it in my mind. It was long shelf with amazing character perfect to anchor our beautiful new mirror and dangling plants.

Speaking of the new mirror, we have always had a large mirror in our dining room and I knew we still wanted one there since it really created the illusion of a larger room. We searched for anew larger mirror that had a vintage look, but also clean lines. When we saw the Aperture Mirror from Anthropologie we knew immediately that it would be perfect. You know when you don’t have a doubt about an item you purchase online without seeing it person? That was definitely this mirror. We loved it at first online sight and it truly fits our spa

We also added what I like to call our “forever curtains” to the windows. Well, maybe the actual curtains won’t be there forever, but we finally invested in some beautiful and sturdy curtain rods that won’t fall apart like our other ones did. They are these beauties from West Elm and they’re gorgeous. The curtain panels are amazing too, also from West Elm. We had solid white curtains before and we decided to go for white again, but this time with texture. To give the windows more definition I painted a row of faux brick over the frames to look like the real brick below on the window sills. This really helped to define and frame the windows since we had white curtains on white walls. We love how it really finishes the lo

For the new framed photos and art I just took some of our favorite family pictures that looked like they could have been taken out in our yard or the country and turned them black and white. I ordered prints from my phone at the Target Photo Center, they were ready to pick up within and hour or two. Easiest and fastest prints I’ve ever made. I placed the photos in vintage frames we’ve collected and they turned out great. I also paired these photos with framed artwork and prints to complete the look. One painting was painted by my great grandmother so it’s pretty awesome to have it in this space.

Our tabletop changed as well. From afar the table looks similar because it’s the same color, but up close you’ll see that we replaced the top with 1 3/4” planks of Maple. It’s simply varnished because the natural color is so amazing. And w with four kids we don’t have to worry about wear and tear because we can always sand the table down again and get a nice new surface for years to come. Justin did such a great job making that table top from scratch; it’s beautiful.

Most of the lights and switches in our house are automated and Justin used this project as an excuse to grab the new Kwikset Premis smart lock for our front door. We can not only lock our door with our phones, but also with our voice using Siri. We’ve created codes for each of our parents to easily get in the house if we’re not home and it also automatically unlocks upon our arrival so we don’t have to fumble with our keys on the porch. It’s also easy to make sure the house is locked up at night when we’re already snug in our bed.

We kept a few things the same in this room including our light fixtures, chairs and the legs of our table, but the room feels so different with all the other changes.

Thank you all so much for following our One Room Challenge journey! Designing our dining room has been a joy and definitely a challenge! It’s been so fun to share everything with you and we are so happy you came along with us. Justin and I love the art of creating beautiful spaces in our home; we have so much fun planning, making decisions, and working hard together. Our home is becoming our art room by room.

We aren’t the only ones revealing our room today. There are amazing designers and guest bloggers revealing their makeovers as well and the DIY inspo is seriously flowing so check out these rooms too!

It’s Week 5 of the One Room Challenge (if you’re new here, that means we only have one week left! Catch up here: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4) and over the last week Lindy and I closed the books on most of the major projects (sorry babe, I know you’re still working on that painting and that for sure qualifies as a “major project” but most of what I’m responsible for is done). 😬 With most of the heavy lifting out of the way I’ve had the headspace to do some reflecting about this experience. So today, I’m going to pull back the curtain and talk about the impact this One Room Challenge has had on our marriage. We Do, I Do, To-Do Two years ago I pushed Lindy to launch Home As Art because I really believe in her art, both on the canvas and in our home, and wanted a way to use my skills and energy to help platform her work in this world. The whole point of Home As Art has been to create a connection point for the two of us. From the projects we’ve tackled together, to the experiences we’ve shared here on […]

It’s Week 5 of the One Room Challenge (if you’re new here, that means we only have one week left! Catch up here: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4) and over the last week Lindy and I closed the books on most of the major projects (sorry babe, I know you’re still working on that painting and that for sure qualifies as a “major project” but most of what I’m responsible for is done).

With most of the heavy lifting out of the way I’ve had the headspace to do some reflecting about this experience. So today, I’m going to pull back the curtain and talk about the impact this One Room Challenge has had on our marriage.

This challenge has motivated both Lindy and I to stretch ourselves past our normal comfort zones with home projects. The fit and finish our new tabletop requires made it the most ambitious woodworking project I’ve ever tackled. Lindy has never been as bold with her art as she’s about to be by placing such a large painting of her own right at the entry to our home. Being stretched like this has been good for sure, but I don’t think that’s the best thing we’ve picked up from this experience.

The massive to-do list has meant we’ve spent the last month and a half with a very practical awareness of what each other is working on and being challenged by. This has been a great tool for us to be aware of ways we can serve each other.

I’m not a painter, but I’m married to one, and I know that Lindy does her best work when she is feeling relaxed and free. Because we have the task to “Paint Large Painting” on the To-Do list hanging in the middle of our living room I’ve been aware that one of the ways I can serve Lindy is to help create the space in her life to paint. During this six-week challenge I’ve made sure to give her two full weekends where I’ve taken 100% responsibility of all four kids so she has the freedom to let whatever is inside of her spill out on the canvas.

The Challenge of the Challenge

While it’s called the One Room Challenge, participating actually comes with two major challenges: a definite transformation and a tight deadline. The best part of this whole project is that Lindy and I simply could not have done it well without strengthening our emotional connection during the process.

I spent one evening a week and a half ago grumpy and frustrated by how imperfect my dining room tabletop was turning out. Lindy could have received my quips and complaints as problems to solve (which is usually how I receive her) but she didn’t. Lindy had the wisdom to see that I was looking for connection. She listened to me complain, asked me questions that helped me vent, and connected with me. It was some straight Brené Brown business and it worked. By just receiving me and not trying to fix me she helped me bust through a key obstacle.

Living With Imperfection

So here’s the last thing (and then we’ve got to get back to work). A few years ago we ripped out all the carpet, linoleum, and brick floors in our house and laid vinyl wood planks on top of our cement floors. It’s been almost entirely awesome.

Once we had the dining room cleared out, empty and ready to paint, a giant bulge under one of the vinyl planks just glared at us from the middle of the room. We’ve been living with it for years. I came home from work a few nights ago and Lindy had had enough, she’d grabbed a screwdriver and pried up the plank only to reveal a small scrap piece of flooring causing the disruption. We still haven’t put the floor back together yet (I have no idea how to do that), but it already feels better just not having that junk under there.

It’s so easy to just get into a rut in marriage, or any relationship really, where we accept, get used to, and then live with things we could pretty easily fix if we just took the time to do some dirty work.

I’ve been really loving the One Room Challenge, and not just because our new dining room is turning out to be pretty beautiful. But because Lindy and I have been in this together for each other, and that is beautiful.

We are just one of a couple hundred guest participants and designers doing the One Room Challenge. Check out all the talented people who are making over one room in their home too!

We are one of a couple hundred guest participants and designers doing the One Room Challenge. Check out all the talented people who are making over one room in their home too! There’s SO MUCH INSPO happening on this website!We are one of a couple hundred guest participants and designers doing the One Room Challenge. Check out all the talented people who are making over one room in their home too! There’s SO MUCH INSPO happening on this website!SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

This week a lot of things changed in our dining room and it’s making us excited! If you missed our previous posts on this 6 week One Room Challenge here they are: Week One, Week Two, Week Three. Now here’s the a scoop on how Week Four went! We got three main objectives done this week. We had some highs and lows, but mostly highs and we’re happy about how it’s going so far! Painting the Walls Our final color is up! During a whirlwind afternoon the ceiling and walls of our dining room were painted white. My dad is a painting contractor and he brought his sprayer over and saved us days of prep and rolling. Yay, dad! It transformed pretty quickly and made our newly stained beams POP! It got us really excited to see all the other parts of the room come together including the custom art pieces I’m working on, I know they’ll pop too! Starting Our Table Top We went to an amazing lumber yard in town to select the wood for our table top. The wood there is of every type you could image and all high quality, unique and beautiful. We chose 1 […]

This week a lot of things changed in our dining room and it’s making us excited! If you missed our previous posts on this 6 week One Room Challenge here they are: Week One, Week Two, Week Three.

Now here’s the a scoop on how Week Four went! We got three main objectives done this week. We had some highs and lows, but mostly highs and we’re happy about how it’s going so far!

Painting the Walls

Our final color is up! During a whirlwind afternoon the ceiling and walls of our dining room were painted white. My dad is a painting contractor and he brought his sprayer over and saved us days of prep and rolling. Yay, dad!

It transformed pretty quickly and made our newly stained beams POP! It got us really excited to see all the other parts of the room come together including the custom art pieces I’m working on, I know they’ll pop too!

Starting Our Table Top

We went to an amazing lumber yard in town to select the wood for our table top. The wood there is of every type you could image and all high quality, unique and beautiful. We chose 1 3/4” maple boards and the wood grain is so pretty.

We shoved all the boards in our mini van (on top of all our four kids) and Justin got right to work when we got home. He ripped the wood so it was (mostly) straight and all the same width. Then he drilled dowel holes, glued it and used huge clamps to keep it together.

It looks really good so far, but I know it took Justin a lot of strength and mental game to put it together. The sweat beading up on his forehead gave away the difficulty level of this project. Especially because the boards together are SO heavy. It’s for sure a two person job to just move it.

Justin was discouraged because the table top wasn’t coming together as perfectly as he had hoped, but he kept going and I can truly say it looks great! I’m proud that pushed though and even shared his real feelings on a recent Instagram post. Not every DIY creation turns out perfectly every step of the way and I hope that sharing our “lows” can be encouraging to other DIYers out there.

Prepping the Chippy Shelf

Ok, so right when this project began I took a chance and bought a scraggly, chippy pink shelf to go in our dining room! Did I mention it’s PINK?! Oh yeah, and it’s not even a shelf. I think it’s a weird bench. What can I say? I had a vision for it! Now, I had to make this weird thing beautiful and functional for our home.

I wanted to retain the great pink (and mint underneath) paint color that was chipping off, but also knock off all the paint that was already falling off. I chose 150 grit sand paper and started sanding. That turned out to be a perfect grit to knock off loose paint and preserve the good paint. When I was done sanding I wiped it down with a wet rag and realized maybe I don’t want to varnish it like I was planning to. The paint was staying on well enough and I like the look of the dry wood rather than the varnished wood. That was great news because that’ll save me an hour of work. Yay!

Next week We’ll cut the legs off the bench/shelf and it’ll be done!

Final To-Do List

We’re nearing the end of this One Room Challenge and it’s time to make a final to-do list. Here it is, friends. The real deal (in no particular order):

Cut legs off pink shelf

Install pink shelf

Style pink shelf

Install large mirror

Paint main art

Frame main art

Hang main art

Secure buffet to wall

Style buffet

Finish framed art

Hang framed art

Hang 24” round mirror

Hang hooks/shelf for front door

Style door area

Nail up wood beams

Fix floor

Install quarter round

Install curtain rods

Hang curtains

Adjust length of curtains

Weather stripping for door

Kwikset door knobs

Overall room styling

Ummm. That list got long somehow. Hopefully we finish most of it in week five and not down to the wire in week six!

We are one of a couple hundred guest participants and designers doing the One Room Challenge. Check out all the talented people who are making over one room in their home too! There’s SO MUCH INSPO happening on this website!

It’s Week 2 of the One Room Challenge, we have our vision for what we want our dining room to look like, and now we need to start making it happen! You can read all about what we’re planning for this space in the Week 1 Post. Design Choices We had a lot of design decisions to make with what furniture and accessories to add or replace in our dining room. There were so many great choices and we want to show you what things we were looking at. Mirrors We decided to replace our mirror and we found a some great ones! It was hard to decide. We knew we wanted brass and a somewhat modern shape. Here are a few of our favorites. And FYI: Anthropologie is KILLING IT in the mirror category. I am majorly impressed with the designs they have right now. mirror 1 | mirror 2 | mirror 3 Buffets We want to add a buffet cabinet to our dining room, but we need it to be super compact and fit our modern farmhouse style. It was actually hard to find many that fit our specifications, but here are a few that we thought were awesome. […]

It’s Week 2 of the One Room Challenge, we have our vision for what we want our dining room to look like, and now we need to start making it happen! You can read all about what we’re planning for this space in the Week 1 Post.

Design Choices

We had a lot of design decisions to make with what furniture and accessories to add or replace in our dining room. There were so many great choices and we want to show you what things we were looking at.

Mirrors

We decided to replace our mirror and we found a some great ones! It was hard to decide. We knew we wanted brass and a somewhat modern shape. Here are a few of our favorites. And FYI: Anthropologie is KILLING IT in the mirror category. I am majorly impressed with the designs they have right now.

Buffets

We want to add a buffet cabinet to our dining room, but we need it to be super compact and fit our modern farmhouse style. It was actually hard to find many that fit our specifications, but here are a few that we thought were awesome.

Curtains & Rods

Another item that took us some time to decide on was new curtains and curtain rods. Truth be told, the curtains we have now have been with us for almost nine years and they’re ready to move on. We knew we wanted to repeat the brass color in our mirror with the curtain rods so that guided our decisions.

The Budget Situation

As you might know, we don’t usually have a big budget for room makeovers and renovations. Some of the items we listed here can be on the expensive side so you might be asking how we can afford all of this.

Well, since about January we’ve been downsizing all kinds of things around our home and selling it on eBay, Craigslist, and the Facebook Marketplace. Over the past few months we’ve sold furniture, electronics, clothes and other random weird things. We sold enough to give us a budget of about $2,400 for this makeover. How cool is that? Seriously, that cash is a great motivation for us to keep downsizing and save up for our next room makeover!

Getting Prepped

This week we are prepping and purchasing everything we need to clean, sand, stain, prime, and paint the walls. Wow, all that sounds so easy when you write it in one sentence, but its going to take us the whole six weeks to do! It’s going to be a ton of work but the first piece of new furniture was delivered a few days ago and has got us really excited to see this space transform. It’s pretty exciting to get all the pieces of our vision delivered one by one!

We know we’re going to make a huge mess before things start looking any better. This week we need to empty out the room and put up walls of plastic because we have decided sand down our wooden beams. (We’re so excited about that!) And with sanding comes a mess so, basically the dining room will be quarantined off from the rest of the house for a few weeks because we learned our lesson with our bathroom renovation two years ago: excessive dust is not your friend! The plastic walls will go up tomorrow and our weekend will be full of sanding, staining and clean up. This will be the first of our big changes.

We’ve decided to join the One Room Challenge for Spring 2018 and we are really excited! If you haven’t heard of the One Room Challenge before it’s an event where designers and bloggers come together and each makeover one room in their home over six weeks – and share the entire process. There are 20 designers participating and hundreds of bloggers, including us, so you’re sure to find lots of inspiration. We’ve already been working on plans for our dining room makeover so we thought we’d join the challenge and share the journey as our project unfolds over the next six weeks. The challenge starts now! Our Dining Room Today Our dining room has already come a long way since we moved into our home almost nine years ago. It used to have brick floors, dark wood paneling and outdated (even medieval looking!) fixtures. Today our dining room is much improved. We replaced the floor with vinyl wood flooring, all the walls have been painted a cream, and we have updated fixtures and furniture. We even gave our Pottery Barn farmhouse table a makeover last year. Fun fact: that giant mirror is something Justin bought himself as a sophomore in high […]

If you haven’t heard of the One Room Challenge before it’s an event where designers and bloggers come together and each makeover one room in their home over six weeks – and share the entire process. There are 20 designers participating and hundreds of bloggers, including us, so you’re sure to find lots of inspiration.

We’ve already been working on plans for our dining room makeover so we thought we’d join the challenge and share the journey as our project unfolds over the next six weeks. The challenge starts now!

Our Dining Room Today

Our dining room has already come a long way since we moved into our home almost nine years ago. It used to have brick floors, dark wood paneling and outdated (even medieval looking!) fixtures.

Today our dining room is much improved. We replaced the floor with vinyl wood flooring, all the walls have been painted a cream, and we have updated fixtures and furniture. We even gave our Pottery Barn farmhouse table a makeover last year.

Fun fact: that giant mirror is something Justin bought himself as a sophomore in high school (nearly twenty years ago!) when he and his mom gave his childhood bedroom a “grown up” makeover.

It’s a peaceful dining room, but also a little boring and needs something that makes us just smile.

We consider our whole home a work of art, so we want every room to be a beautiful and fun with creative and maybe unexpected design. Our dining room is one of the first things you see when you walk in our front door so we want to want to make sure that what you experience sets the tone for the rest of our home.

The Plan

We have some fun plans for our dining room! Our style is a blend of modern, farmhouse and minimalism. We love bright whites with pops of color. We don’t want to give too much away right now, but there’s going to be a lot of sanding, painting, and staining. We’re throwing in a few new furniture pieces (in some unconventional places) and some new artwork I’ll be painting. It’s going to be fun and a lot of work.

We created a mood boards that show the vision of how we want our dining room to look. This design direction definitely makes us happy. We hope we can pull it off well!

This makeover will be spilling out a bit past the wall of our dining room to include the interior of our entryway. Our front door is just an arm’s reach away from the dining room table so we’re planning to update the door to vibe well with the rest of the changes.

We’re excited to start this makeover challenge and be inspired by some other talented designers and bloggers at the same time! Check out at all the other guest participating in the Spring 2018 One Room Challenge. This event happens twice a year so you can see the final outcomes of the ORC from previous years like the most recent one in Fall 2017. We’ve really enjoyed scrolling through those!

Curating a bookshelf can be tricky. You have to balance functionality, beauty and meaning with the perfect amount of negative space. Shelf design is an art for sure! I’m no shelf design expert, but I love using my art sensibilities to create beauty in every corner of our home. I have many helpful tips that I’ve learned on my shelf design journey. Here are six of them. 1. Create groupings Create groupings of items that stack or overlap on your shelves. Clustering items together helps break up the space into more creative shapes instead of having everything equidistant and predictable. This is one of the first things you can do as you start designing your shelf. Group items together that have harmony. Stacking books is a perfect way to achieve this because it’s functional, it can be a base for putting an item on top of or it can be a block of bold color or texture. Layer larger items behind smaller items such as frames. Use your favorite decor items as “book holders” to keep your vertical stacks from falling. Once you have your small groupings or clusters you’ll want to see my next tip. 2. Negative Space is everything […]

Curating a bookshelf can be tricky. You have to balance functionality, beauty and meaning with the perfect amount of negative space. Shelf design is an art for sure!

I’m no shelf design expert, but I love using my art sensibilities to create beauty in every corner of our home. I have many helpful tips that I’ve learned on my shelf design journey. Here are six of them.

1. Create groupings

Create groupings of items that stack or overlap on your shelves. Clustering items together helps break up the space into more creative shapes instead of having everything equidistant and predictable. This is one of the first things you can do as you start designing your shelf. Group items together that have harmony. Stacking books is a perfect way to achieve this because it’s functional, it can be a base for putting an item on top of or it can be a block of bold color or texture.

Layer larger items behind smaller items such as frames. Use your favorite decor items as “book holders” to keep your vertical stacks from falling. Once you have your small groupings or clusters you’ll want to see my next tip.

2. Negative Space is everything

Truly, the air between your objects is just as important as the objects themselves. Clutter puts out stressful vibes no matter how pretty your books and decor are.

I like to keep our shelves about 50-60% filled leaving “breathing room” between my small groupings. Empty spots on the shelf are a really good thing.

3. Meaningful objects connect you to your space.

Adding a few items that mean something to you will connect you to your design and save you from spending money on new decor. Here’s a few examples.

Frame a few small old photos of you or your family. Blurry vintage photos or crisp black and whites are so cool. It’s easy to make any photo of you and your favorite person artsy just by changing it to black and white, putting it in a frame and setting it on top of a stack of books.

Add an object that represents what you do, what you enjoy or people that you love. I found this vintage painters brush at an antique shop and it reminded me of my love for art and how I’m the daughter and granddaughter of painters. It makes me smile whenever I see it. Justin’s mom gave him a small anvil which he loves because it reminds him of how his grandfather was a blacksmith. You could also frame a piece of your kids art from school.

4. Books are Art

A book shelf is supposed to store books, obviously. But I had to learn that I needed to be more intentional about what books I put on shelves if I want them to be beautiful. I had to thin our books out, store unattractive books elsewhere and choose the beautiful ones to display.

I collected colorful vintage books and put them into complementary stacks so they became art. This helps you curate the colors to go with the color scheme in that room. You can repeat the color of pillows or throws with colored books. Another way to store unattractive books on your shelf is to turn them around so the pages show and not the spines. This add amazing texture and a neutral color that goes with almost anything.

5. Cover the Electronics

Nothing says chaotic like a tangle of cords and internet boxes does. Cover that stuff with decor items, plants or a diy book facade like what we made. Hiding the ugly stuff adds so much simplicity and peace to our shelf design.

6. Plants add life

Plants add life to your shelves. We’ve never appreciated indoor plants as much as we do now. I’ve realized how good they are at giving a sense of movement and life. A plants shape is solid and transparent at the same time which can cover a large area and give height. We’re not partial to live vs. fake plants. Both kinds add so much and I love the way the look

We stopped seeing our bookshelves as just a storage spot and began to them as a blank canvas ready to become a work of art. This perspective has totally transformed our living room and we absolutely love it!

We hope these tips help you design your bookshelf so you can add beauty, simplicity, functionality and personality to your space. Have fun creating a work of art on your shelves!

We’ve been working on improving the bookshelves next to our TV for months now, but there is one final thing that will pull the whole thing together. We finally figured out how to cover our cords and electronics on the shelf so it looks like we have none! This project turned out really well. You would have no idea that our WiFi and smart home stuff are sitting on the shelf next to our TV because all you see is cool old books! Here’s the supplies and tools we needed to do it: Wooden box OR wood plank (5” high X however long it needs to be to cover the space) Saw Wood glue & clamps OR screws and screw gun 10-15 hardback books (amount varies with project size) Hot glue gun Razor blade We got a wooden storage box at Target and Justin began cutting it apart with his Japanese hand saw. He cut the bottom out and left a few inches on the sides so it could stand up on its own. You could also get a wood plank as long as the area you need to cover and glue or screw short sides on it so it […]

We’ve been working on improving the bookshelves next to our TV for months now, but there is one final thing that will pull the whole thing together. We finally figured out how to cover our cords and electronics on the shelf so it looks like we have none!

This project turned out really well. You would have no idea that our WiFi and smart home stuff are sitting on the shelf next to our TV because all you see is cool old books!

Here’s the supplies and tools we needed to do it:

Wooden box OR wood plank (5” high X however long it needs to be to cover the space)

Saw

Wood glue & clamps OR screws and screw gun

10-15 hardback books (amount varies with project size)

Hot glue gun

Razor blade

We got a wooden storage box at Target and Justin began cutting it apart with his Japanese hand saw. He cut the bottom out and left a few inches on the sides so it could stand up on its own. You could also get a wood plank as long as the area you need to cover and glue or screw short sides on it so it stands alone. The wooden surround should only be about 5” tall so the books are taller than it.

Justin had to attach the sides of the box together since it wasn’t long enough for our area. He used wood glue and clamps.

Now that we have our wooden surround ready its time to add the book spines to it. I had a stack of hardback vintage books that I was willing to part with. Your books don’t have to be vintage, but they should be book spines that you’d like to look at on your shelf. I recommend looking at yard sales or thrift stores for the best deals on books. I also recommend that the colors you choose are neutral or complimentary to each other.

Before you start cutting the covers off your books here’s one tip. Arrange you books in an order that looks best for the space and is the correct length to cover it. This is also the time to move books around, make sure you like how the different heights coordinate and that you like the overall look.

I then stacked the book up next to me and started cutting the spines off with a razor blade. I made sure to get the back, but also a little of the flexible part that curves around the corner of the book. This will look best since the books will have more of a 3D look. I started by hot gluing an uncut book to the side of the surround so you see a full book from the side.

Then I hot glued the individual spines to the wooden surround as I cut them off. I found what worked well was to take a page of one the books and fold it so it fits into the inside spine piece. I first hot glued the paper to the spine then I hot glued the spine to the wood.

From the back you can see the inside of the book spines and the paper rolled in them so they don’t have to be pushed flat against the wood.

Repeat till all the spines are glued to the surround. Add another solid book to the other end. Now check out how it looks in it’s spot!

It was a pretty fun day, getting coordinating tattoos that symbolize our love on Valentine’s Day. But before I dive into that awesome day here’s some of the story behind it. When Justin and I were dating I was full into my art life. Paint was always on my hands and stuck in the cracks of my nails. I was part of a series at our church that included live painting on stage during the sermon. My days and nights were basically about art stuff. Justin was a part of that and helped me with certain projects in the evenings. Justin told me in the midst of that season that he felt like God was going to use me as the paint brush to help restore his life. That meant a lot to me and I decided to look for that happening as we got married and moved forward together. That was about 12 years ago and I can say for a fact that I’ve sent this to be true. The thing I wasn’t necessarily paying attention to or looking for was how much Justin was going to used by God as a brush in my life to restore ME. […]

It was a pretty fun day, getting coordinating tattoos that symbolize our love on Valentine’s Day. But before I dive into that awesome day here’s some of the story behind it.

When Justin and I were dating I was full into my art life. Paint was always on my hands and stuck in the cracks of my nails. I was part of a series at our church that included live painting on stage during the sermon. My days and nights were basically about art stuff. Justin was a part of that and helped me with certain projects in the evenings.

Justin told me in the midst of that season that he felt like God was going to use me as the paint brush to help restore his life. That meant a lot to me and I decided to look for that happening as we got married and moved forward together. That was about 12 years ago and I can say for a fact that I’ve sent this to be true. The thing I wasn’t necessarily paying attention to or looking for was how much Justin was going to used by God as a brush in my life to restore ME. God has used Justin to restore, grow and change me equally as much as I’ve seen change in Justin.

We’re coming up on being married for 11 years in May and the art we have been a part of in each others lives is pretty incredible. Being an artist in someone’s life involves intention, patience, gentleness, pain, struggle and Joy. It’s been a ride, but we have both never been as beautiful to each other as we are now!

The idea of a paintbrush naturally fit into our ideas as were we’re talking about getting coordinating tattoos. After tossing a few ideas around we decided on the same paintbrush on both of us, but a different design behind it. We’re really different people, but also the same in so many ways. It’s perfect for us.

Our Valentines tattoo appointment was at 12pm in Oceanside, CA. We got our four kids settled into school and babysitting for the day (worth mentioning because a kid-free day is vacation status). We started our adventure with coffee and pre-breakfast scones at our favorite local coffee place, Arcade Coffee Roasters. Then we followed it up with breakfast in Temecula at a joint called EAT Marketplace. Both amazing! Food is pretty much our favorite and you’ll want to try ALL of our recommends at some point in your life. Haha! (Srsly tho.)

We arrived at Arcade Tattoo and I met our talented tattoo artist Jordan Brill. Justin has had tattoo work from Jordan before and in talking to him I was super impressed by this guy because it was immediately apparent that he is an artist of his craft. An artist considers all the details and variables of a project. He went above and beyond to do that. He knows how tattoos behave on the skin over time and helped us make decisions to have our tattoos look the best they can for years to come. He also knew how to create that watercolor look I was hoping for and I was super happy with his ideas and how it turned out.

I went first. It was also my first tattoo and I always wondered how it felt. Well, now I know. It feels like getting stung by a bee while the needles are on and no pain when the needles are lifted. Very weird.

Then Justin went. This is his fourth tattoo. His was a little faster since he went with no color. The whole experience was totally fun.

Once our tattoo art was done we celebrated with more food art! Don’t judge, but we went to three more fine food establishments. We went to Local Tap House around the corner from the tattoo shop. It was the best. Get the deviled eggs (trust). We got in the car and headed back to Temecula and went to 1909 and got a few more appetizers. Delicious. And we finished the evening with dessert and drinks at a local joint called Wolfskill. It was one of our funnest Valentines days yet!

A quick Pinterest search for Valentine’s Decor will give you about a million different ideas for how to make your home look great and feel festive for Valentine’s season. But here’s an idea most people overlook: decorate with music. It’s so obvious, right? We all fill out homes with Christmas classics starting a few days after Thanksgiving, why not do the same thing for other holidays? As a former DJ I’ve got a deep appreciation for a well-crafted mixtape (ok, playlist – but mixtape just sounds so much better) and every year a put a new one together that we keep on repeat throughout the house most evenings in February. Yesterday we got a new white Apple HomePod for our bedroom so now I can say “Hey Siri, play my 2018 Valentine’s Mixtape” and songs to help you feel all those lovely feelings fill the air! Here’s my 2017 Valentine’s Mixtape and below I proudly present 2018 Valentine’s Mixtape for your listening pleasure. You have to listen to it in order at least the first time, otherwise you’re severely hurting my feelings. What songs are missing? Leave a comment below and let me know!

A quick Pinterest search for Valentine’s Decor will give you about a million different ideas for how to make your home look great and feel festive for Valentine’s season. But here’s an idea most people overlook: decorate with music.

It’s so obvious, right? We all fill out homes with Christmas classics starting a few days after Thanksgiving, why not do the same thing for other holidays? As a former DJ I’ve got a deep appreciation for a well-crafted mixtape (ok, playlist – but mixtape just sounds so much better) and every year a put a new one together that we keep on repeat throughout the house most evenings in February.

Yesterday we got a new white Apple HomePod for our bedroom so now I can say “Hey Siri, play my 2018 Valentine’s Mixtape” and songs to help you feel all those lovely feelings fill the air! Here’s my 2017 Valentine’s Mixtape and below I proudly present 2018 Valentine’s Mixtape for your listening pleasure. You have to listen to it in order at least the first time, otherwise you’re severely hurting my feelings.

If some church family was going to make a big deal about boycotting a holiday, you would probably expect it to be Halloween, because of demons and the devil, or maybe we object to Santa and the commercialization of Christmas. But nope, it’s Valentine’s Day we don’t celebrate with our kids. Don’t get me wrong, I love Valentine’s and make a pretty big deal of celebrating it with Lindy, but we just don’t draw the kids in to any of that. We’re not cruel about it or anything, and of course we help them participate with their class celebrations at school. And I’m definitely a pushover, so when Reeve snuggled up next to me on the couch last week and asked if I would buy her a dress for the Valentine’s Day celebration at school I caved in and bought it for her. I’ve even thought about leveraging the holiday as an opportunity to teach our kids about history and sacrificial love, but–nah. No Gifts The last two years Lindy has done a fun Valentine’s art project with the kids and it’s always really cool, but its not for them. Their art project actually goes up on the wall right […]

If some church family was going to make a big deal about boycotting a holiday, you would probably expect it to be Halloween, because of demons and the devil, or maybe we object to Santa and the commercialization of Christmas. But nope, it’s Valentine’s Day we don’t celebrate with our kids.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Valentine’s and make a pretty big deal of celebrating it with Lindy, but we just don’t draw the kids in to any of that. We’re not cruel about it or anything, and of course we help them participate with their class celebrations at school. And I’m definitely a pushover, so when Reeve snuggled up next to me on the couch last week and asked if I would buy her a dress for the Valentine’s Day celebration at school I caved in and bought it for her. I’ve even thought about leveraging the holiday as an opportunity to teach our kids about history and sacrificial love, but–nah.

No Gifts

The last two years Lindy has done a fun Valentine’s art project with the kids and it’s always really cool, but its not for them. Their art project actually goes up on the wall right where Lindy and I celebrate Valentine’s every morning February 1st through the 14th.

Each morning Lindy opens a little gift from me. Each morning the kids are eager to watch her open them. This year I made a game out of it by wrapping two gifts and letting Lindy decide which one she’s going to pick for the day and it’s fun to watch the eagerness on our kids faces as they anticipate what the gift could be.

I love our four littles, but they will never get a gift for me on Valentine’s Day. I want them to know I love their mom more than anyone else and am committed to investing in my relationship with her her.

No Dates

Just the other day I was picking up the boys from school when I overheard some mom’s talking about the Valentine’s Day dates they had planned with their kids. It sounds so sweet, I guess because it actually is, but heck no for me. I take the girls out on Daddy Dates and the boys on Dadventures often enough.

Valentine’s is a season of leaving my kids out of the celebrations so I can pour more in to Lindy.

Nothing

I realize this may make me sound like a jerk, and some of you hardcore Pinterest moms are ready to report me to CPS. But sorry, not sorry.

If you’re celebrating Valentine’s with your kids I think you’re doing it wrong.

I leave the kids out of our celebration of Valentine’s because I want them to know my love for their mom is more important than my love for them. I want them to feel safe in our family because of their confidence in our marriage. I want them to know that marriage is hard and that real love is a series of choices to grow in humility by thinking of my wife before myself. I want them to know that if there’s one thing they can count on in our family it’s that Lindy and I will never stop doing the work to make our marriage work.